How to deal with 'external' aspect when you're legally unable to perform any work OR that scope of work needed may be beyond your economical reach?

I have been thinking that since the less expensive property is so far outside of the downtown area it may not see the same economic growth that we are seeing around downtown.

When you see someone from your own family, economic class, age group or social group doing better than you, it slaps you with the reality that you are capable of that too.

Good economic growth. 

For this you can use the 'General Economic Characteristics' table through the American Fact Finder tool on the Census Bureau website. https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/economic-snapshot/2017/12/12/look-neighborhood-d-fws-hot-residential-real-estate-marketTraditionally lower cost neighborhoods have low inventory and few days on market.  

With social and business networks such as Bigger Pockets and Linkedin, is there any economic justification for having a middleman (or woman)?

Follow the money, mainly population flows and economic growth.

I agree with David Ribardo , besides the legal aspect, there are so many other considerations, like economic condition, demand and supply for rentals, availability of good / affordable contractors, quality of property managers, etc.

No one can pretend to know how this works aside from the fact that it provides economic stability to people in countries who don't know if their local currency is going to be around next week.